Mobile Navigation

Search form

You are here

Dough hook

Dough hook

Why is my dough crawling up the dough hook of my KitchenAid and headed straight for the gears and guts of the machine after just a few turns? I suppose it has something to do with the fact that the knob at the front the mixer fell off and the hook doesn't like the way I reattached the knob, but how do I correct the problem?

Also, what's the easy way to detach the bowl from the treads at the base? My current method usually involves a furious arm-wrestle.

Mike, this is a challah dough, which is not a wet dough, and I haven't previously had a problem with dough climbing the hook on this or any other dough, even really wet ciabatta doughs. I'm still inclined to think something's not adjusted right.

I mixed up my weekly batch of pain a l'ancienne this afternoon, using the full 24 ounces of water. The dough was quite wet. I tried something new: I dipped the dough hook in a pan of water before inserting it in my KA and also sprayed the top of it with water. I sprayed the top of the hook lightly a couple of times during the mixing. Normally the dough climbs up the hook with this dough, but this time it didn't.

Now, I don't know if this will work as well the next time I mix this dough, but thought it worth mentioning.

You didn't mention which KA model you are using but wrote something about jury rigging the dough hook in. I don't know if an improper beater to bowl clearance would cause your recent issue, but it may be worth checking. Your manual gives instructions. The KitchenAid website, in their KitchenAid conversations section, has a video showing proper clearance using a dime as a test.

Don't know which model K.A. you have but I have a 20+ yr. old K.A. (model K5A) and I have had the problem you describe (dough climbing the hook onto the drive shaft and assembly cover) and it mostly happens when I have too much dough (more than 6-7 cups of flour) in the the mixing bowl. For large amounts of dough (4 loaves of 1 1/2 - 2 lb. each) I bought an additional bowl for my K.A. and divide the dough between the 2 bowls when mixing larger batches using two seperate bowls.

I have an Artisan that is only about 6 months old and the bowl justs twists into place. The problem is that really stiff doughs cause it to twist in ever more tightly. I have found if I hit the handle with the heel of my hand so the bowl does a quick counter-clockwise twist, it pops off. Not optimal, but it works.

I was mixing dough with an old Hobart K5 I recently got and the dough was crawling up so I stoped it and cleaned it off and put the machine back down. When I started it I saw it ride up and down--I had forgotten to lock it down. But it was mixing well and the dough was NOT crawling up the dough hook. When it started to crawl up, the machine rode up a little and the dough came back down on it's own. Because of the weight of the machine it did not just ride up to the top of the dough and stay there, but mixed well down into the dough as it should. Then I remembered the instructions in an old Sunbeam mixer I hadn't used in many years--"Let the mixer ride up and down when mixing dough." Of course you must know that the old Sunbeam barely did mix dough no matter what was done, but still, maybe they were copying the instructions from a better mixer.

Now, because perhaps my K5 is old, it creaked at the hinge (but not that much really) when doing this, but a drop of oil or a small bit of grease there would help. The only thing I could see this hurting is that hinge expecially if you mixed batch after batch of dough, day in and day out on a machine this old. Anyone else mix dough this way?

All original site content copyright 2015 The Fresh Loaf unless stated otherwise. Content posted by community members is their own. The Fresh Loaf is not responsible for community member content. If you see anything inappropriate on the site or have any questions, contact me at floydm at thefreshloaf dot com. This site is powered by Drupal and Mollom. It is part of the Federated Media Publishing - Food channel. Click here for advertising information.